Donuts and Red Shoes...Embracing Jiggy Day

It's Jiggy Day...and I am eating freshly glazed donuts for breakfast and wearing new red shoes.


Because anything red ALWAYS reminds me of my girl...but especially red shoes!

 My heart generally surges and then constricts on Jocie's birthday...causing joy and pain simultaneously.

I find it incomprehensible that my youngest daughter would be 22 today and even further unfathomable that this is the seventh birthday we have celebrated without her. 

The inability to make new memories is one of the cruel realities about losing someone very close to you. As friends and family age...she remains forever fixed in time. A beautiful rose oblivious to seasonal changes or passage of time.

This beautiful rose will always be 15.

I see so much of Jocie in the world around me...like the antics of her teenage brother choosing Hello Kitty for his senior year backpack.

Or downloading the photos from my camera...to find these gems waiting for me! Harassing mom used to be a favorite pastime of Jocie's.

Certainly Jocie would have been on the top of this boulder rockin' the Warrior pose with her siblings.

And she would be completely supportive of this behavior...

as well as this nonsense!

When Jocie was this age she liked sugar, shoes and shopping...

and hated having her hair fixed each and every morning...which completely describes Olivia.


Playing with crazy lovable Kenya always reminds me of Jocie, because she picked her out of that litter of puppies the day we brought her home. Kenya being the most hyper pup...I remember Jocie exclaiming, "See mom, she acts just like one of us!"

Sometimes I wish I could sneak just one new memory out of the past...

one moment I've forgotten.

Something ridiculous that Jocie said...

or even better...a breathtaking mother daughter memory that belongs to just the two of us.

So today my friends I have a wish for you,

or shall I even make it a challenge!

Do something extraordinary...

or even ordinary today,

with someone you love,

doing what you love...

and photograph it, sketch it, journal it,

just document it in some way. Record that memory and tuck it away for safe keeping. Trust me...you will be so happy you did. Happy Jiggy Day to all our friends and family!